Low applicatives and optional se in Spanish non-anticausative intransitive verbs

• Main Author: Ismael Iván Teomiro García
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Universidad Politécnica de Valencia 2013-07-01
• Series: Revista de Lingüística y Lenguas Aplicadas
• Subjects: Low applicative; Optional se; Anticausative; Pronominal verb
• Online Access: http://polipapers.upv.es/index.php/rdlyla/article/view/1354

<em>This work revolves around a very peculiar set of Spanish verbs (‘caer[se]’, ‘morir[se]’, ‘tropezar[se]’ and ‘encallar[se]’), which optionally allow the clitic ‘se’ without any significant change of meaning. These verbs do not enter the transitive-inchoative alternation (i.e. they are non-anticausative). Besides, the presence of the clitic has little semantic contribution, if any at all. They are problematic because they cannot be integrated in existing analyses that account for other instances of pronominal verbs like anticausatives and reflexives. What it is proposed in this work is that these verbs optionally allow a complement low applicative phrase. Moreover, the clitic ‘se’ is thought of as a nominal item. This allows the integration of these verbs in broader analyses of pronominal verbs that consider the clitic a nominal item (whether argumental or expletive-like).</em>